Kerala Waqf Board to challenge HC Division Bench’s verdict on Munambam land

The Kerala Waqf Board (KWB) will file a review petition against the Kerala High Court’s Division Bench order declaring the contentious Munambam land as not a Waqf property.

A two-member Bench consisting of Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice V. M. Shyamkumar had passed the judgment last month in a writ petition filed by the State government challenging a Single Judge’s order striking down the appointment of an inquiry commission into the Munambam issue.

The KWB will argue that an error was apparent on the face of the judgment, and the Bench exceeded its judicial mandate by passing the order on an issue that was never raised by the appellants or any other parties to the litigation, sources said.

The State government, the appellant in the case, had challenged the Single Judge’s order cancelling the appointment of C.N. Ramachandran Nair as the Commission of Inquiry. The Division Bench, which considered the appeal, transgressed the judicial boundaries in the case and decided on the nature of the disputed property, which none of the parties to the litigation had raised during the arguments, the board will argue, the sources said.

The board would also challenge the court order, which set aside the registration of the Munambam holding as a Waqf property, and the court’s findings regarding the delay in registering the holding as a Waqf.

A meeting of the Waqf Board held last week discussed the legal opinion it had received in the case.

The Division Bench, the KWB would argue, decided on the legal question of the nature of the land, which was originally to be decided by the Waqf Tribunal, the appropriate judicial forum, they said.

The judicial overreach has also jeopardised the legal mandate of the tribunal before which the Munambam land case was pending. The Bench’s order will cast a shadow of undue influence over the tribunal and may affect its free and fair dispensation of justice, the Board will argue, sources said.

Meanwhile, the Waqf Tribunal will consider the Munambam case later this week.

The tribunal, headed by District Judge T. K. Minimol, will hear the contentions of the board and the legal heirs of Mohammed Siddique Sait, who gave the disputed land to Farook College, Kozhikode, on November 6. The tribunal had recently allowed the residents of Munambam to challenge the board’s decision in registering the land as Waqf.

The Farook College, Kozhikode, too, had challenged the decision of the Board. The forum will hear and dispose of all the petitions together, the sources said.